“I busied myself to think of a story, -- a story to rival those which had excited us to this

task. One which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling
horror. . .” - Mary Shelley
The Gothic novel Frankenstein is the result of Mary Shelley's travels to Geneva, Switzerland,
with her future husband Percy Bryce Shelley, Dr. John Polidori and Lord Byron. Frankenstein is
a novel with a complex narrative structure. In the core of the novel the Creature's story is
presented to us framed by Victor Frankenstein's story which itself is framed by Robert Walton's
epistolary narrative. The overall structure of the novel is symmetrical: it begins with the letters of
Walton, shifts to Victor's tale, then to the Creature's narration, so as to switch to Victor again and
end with the records of Walton. In this manner the reader gets different versions of the same
story from different perspectives. Mary Shelley's rather atypical approach not to stick to only one
narrator and one defined narrative situation throughout the book creates various impressions on
the reader of the novel. Mary seems to have examined and tested all existing conventions, but
she found none which could suit her: she invented her own – a hybrid of ‘Chinese box’, ‘point of
view’, ‘indirections’ and Framed or Embedded Narrative, which is also known as framed
narratives or Chinese box structure of stories within stories, metafiction. The first narrative was
taken by Walton Who writes to his sister Mrs. Saville. Since the plot of the novel in this section
is carried on by letters, at this stage the epistolary narrative has been employed from there the
embedded structure of the narrative is taken up by Victor from chapter 1 to 10. Victor’s narrative
then gives a frame to the narratives of Monster from chapters 11 to 16. From there again the turn
of narrative is carried further by Victor up to 24 and Walton takes over the narratives to the
concluding part of the novel and the frame is closed up. The structure is tight because of
embedded narrative. It is written in 1st person narrative, but there are three 1st person narratives.
The intention of each narrative is to create some effect on the narration. The narrative of monster
attempts to convince his creator, Victor, to take his responsibility as parent and to make a mate
for him. Victor’s narrative ventures to persuade Walton to end his journey and to destroy the
monster.
At the beginning of the last chapter, Shelly makes use of the first-person narration to tell the
story. Frankenstein continued to tell his story. He wanted to take revenge on his creature
Daemon as it killed his friends and family. He was desperate to destroy the monster. He pursued
it no matter how hard his life was and how difficult the processes were. The story of capturing
the monster was told by Frankenstein himself and used “I” to indicate creditability. That is the
first-person narration.
After Frankenstein had finished his story, the book turned back to Walton’s letter. Walton saved
Frankenstein from the iced Ocean and became his friend. The narration turned to Walton’s story.
From his letter to his sister Margaret, we know that Frankenstein was dead finally and the
monster came to take his body away. Through Walton’s narration, we can find that Daemon has
still got its conscience. He was borne away by waves and lost in darkness at last. The second part
of the last chapter was narrated by Walton, as mentioned before. In this part, “I” was used to
indicate Walton, not Frankenstein. All in all, this novel used first-person narration in two
different ways, one for Frankenstein and one for Walton. Other sections of the story are second
person - told in 'letters' (olden-times 'email'). A letter is also called an 'epistle' - hence 'epistolary'
novel. Elizabeth writes to Victor Frankenstein to tell him about events at home. She narrates
events to Victor using 'you'. As with most 'second person', the writer also uses first and third
person.
Frankenstein is both a frame narrative and a
story within a story. A frame story begins and ends in the same place, and a story within a story
is seen through Walton’s telling of Victor’s telling of the creature’s story

Walton’s perception of victor as great, noble man ruined by the events described in the story
adds to the tragic conclusion of the novel. Framing Narratives within narratives not only allows
the reader to hear the voice of all of the main characters, but also provides multiple views of the
central characters. Walton sees Victor is a noble, tragic figure; Frankenstein sees himself as an
overly proud and overly ambitious victim of fate; the Monster sees Frankenstein as a reckless
creator, too self-centered to care for his creation. Similarly, while Walton and Frankenstein deem
the Monster a malevolent, insensitive brute, the monster casts himself as a martyred classical
hero. Monster reassumes control of the narrative from Walton ensures that, after Victor’s death
and even after his own, the struggle to understand who or what the monster really is – Adam or
Satan, tragic victim or arch – villain- will go on. Thus, Shelly invented her own a hybrid
of ‘Chinese box’, or ‘Box within Box’ point of view style, which is also known as framed
narratives. Story is transmitted from the monster to Victor, from victor to Walton and from
Walton to his sister at which point The Reader finally gains access to it. This way narrative style
is layered Narrative   this layering of stories which stories enables the reworking of familiar ideas
in a new context. However, one can also explore whether the structure of the novel itself helps in
explain these narratives parallels.
Each narrator in the story adds piece of information that only he knows; Walton explains the
circumstances of victors last days; Victor explain his creation of The Monster and The Monster
explain his turn to Evil. The difference in perspective between the narrator or sometime Stark
especially since Victor and the monster standing opposition of each other for much of the novel.
From victors point of view the monster is nothing but a hideous  and evil creature, from the
monster account on the other hand it becomes clear that he is a thinking, feeling and emotional
being.
The recounting of the murder of William Frankenstein is a prime example of the impact of
perspective while victors description colored by the emotional letter from his father, focuses on
the absolute evil of the act, the Monster’s versions of events centers on the emotional
circumstances surrounding it. Even if one cannot sympathize with the monster one can at least
understand his actions this kind of dual narration is one of the more interesting consequence of
the complicated narrative structure that Shelly implements in her novel.